1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fishing reels and more particularly to a reel handle with a one-way clutch incorporated therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art fishing reels suffer from a common fault, that is, when a large fish is hooked, it takes great strength to reel the fish in. A prior art fishing reel requires continuous turning of the reel handle to reel in a fish. Because of the inflexibility of the design, there are certain portions of the rotation of the handle where greater force must be applied, and other portions where the leverage is increased and less power is necessary to rotate the handle.
One-way clutches have been used in fishing reels for various reasons. One such clutch device is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,240 to Sato which discloses a fishing reel with a friction type rotation restrictor is mounted on the handle shaft between the drive gear and handle and linked to a reel body through a one-way clutch. The rotation restrictor prevents rotation in a line unwinding direction of the drive gear and spool against a tension applied to the fishing line and regardless of a stopping phase of the spool.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,604,273 to Hayes discloses a fishing reel with a brake mechanism which may be rapidly brought into action with a preadjusted tension. In operation, the brake mechanism is applied or brought into action and by adjustable devices the tension is set with consideration for the tensile strength of the line employed, so that the spool will rotatably yield to a pull on the line below such value as would cause the line to break. After such tension has been established, the simple movement of an interposer will free the brake to enable casting or free spooling. To reaply the brake, it is simply necessary to shift the interposer back, and in doing so the brake will become applied with the previously set tension.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,306,259 to Khoenle discloses a fishing reel having a spool and a spool shaft, an end plate, a housing on the end plate, the shaft extending into the housing, a plurality of superposed friction elements located in the housing, one of which is a ring, a clutch mechanism to lock the spool shaft and the ring in one direction of rotation only, the clutch mechanism comprising a cam wheel located within the ring and having a plurality of surfaces which approach the inner surface of the ring, balls located within the spaces between the ring and the cam wheel, and means to prevent the balls from running on the surface of a friction element at the side of the ring.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,548 to Faulkner discloses a take up trigger for a fishing reel which includes an annular overrunning clutch having a lock mode and an overrun mode, annularly fitted onto the shaft of the fishing reel with a trigger lever extending from the housing on the clutch, the clutch being oriented on the shaft such that tha clutch overrun mode corresponds to the reel take up mode, whereby the clutch lock mode necessarily corresponds to the trigger take up mode.
Each of the above references attempt to solve the problem of restricting rotation in the line unwinding direction of the handle shaft, the reel, and the rotation restrictor. They do not pertain to the line winding direction. Furthermor, the instant invention may be adapted to fit most of the prior art reels by replacing the standard handle with the high-torque, one way fishing reel handle of the invention.